Toward Meeting the Requirements of High-performance Buildings: A Case Study in the U.S. Federal Government

Legislation mandates that the U.S. Federal Government reduce the environmental impact of its buildings. For instance, all new buildings should achieve net-zero energy by 2030, reduce water use by 26% by 2020, and divert 50% of non-hazardous solid waste and construction debris from landfills. In order to meet these mandates, the U.S. Federal Government has incorporated several strategies to retrofit its current building portfolio such as employing integrated design principles, reducing the intensity and type of energy use, protecting and conserving water, and reducing the environmental impact of materials. However, most of these strategies are still in the implementation phase and have not been fully assessed. In response to this need, this exploratory study aims to compare the barriers and solutions to retrofitting a typical Federal office building. The research approach includes synthesizing previous studies and using a case study that examines water and energy data of an existing federal building. The results from this analysis will help to better understand the impact of these barriers, the efforts to overcome them and point toward systems frameworks that can aid in the process.